CHAPTER V

THE MEDIEVAL CHURCH

A. SOME GENERAL FEATURES

tion of Greek

and Latin

THE church as we find it in the history of the Middle Ages means especially the Latin or Roman Catholic Church. The Greek Church, however, continued to hold sway in eastern 82. SeparaEurope. Differences of language and civilization between the East and the West, together with the political disputes churches which have been touched upon in dealing with the rise of the papacy (§ 20), had early paved the way for a breach between the two churches. In religious usages there were some minor differences, such as the time of keeping Easter. There was also a dispute as to the validity of a change which the West had made in the wording of the creed adopted by the whole church at Nicae'a in 325. Above all, the Greeks refused to recognize the supremacy which the Pope claimed over the church. As a result of long-continued disputes, the Pope and the Patriarch of Constantinople (the head of the Eastern Church) excommunicated each other in 1054. Thenceforth members of the two churches looked upon each other as "heretics." Many efforts have since been made to heal the breach; but to the present time the two churches remain separate and mutually hostile.

The unbroken rule of the church over the lives and spirits of men, down to the time of the Reformation, is one of the most striking features of the Middle Ages. It is difficult for 83. Power us to realize how extensive and absolute that rule of the Latin Church was. In all western Europe there was but one church, ruled over by the Pope at Rome. This was not a mere voluntary association, concerned only with man's spiritual and

moral welfare; it was rather a state within the state. Or perhaps it may better be described as a great international state, whose territory included all western Christendom, and whose claims and jurisdictions crossed and conflicted with those of temporal governments. A recent legal writer says of the medieval church: "It has laws, lawmakers, law courts, lawyers. It Maitland, uses physical force to compel men to obey its laws. It keeps prisons. In the thirteenth century, though with squeamish phrases, it pronounces sentence of death. It is no voluntary society. If people are not born into it, they are baptized into it when they cannot help themselves. If they attempt to leave it, they are guilty of the crime of treason, and are likely to be burned. It is supported by involuntary contributions, by tithe and tax."

Canon Law

in England, 100 (condensed)

84. Special features of the church

Some of the special features which distinguish the medieval church from modern religious societies may be summed up as follows:

(1) Its universality. The whole Christian population was obliged to belong to it, just as to-day every one must belong to the state under which he lives.

(2) Its much greater wealth. Through gifts from pious or conscience-stricken individuals, and the industry of the monks, it became the greatest proprietor of land in Europe, owning probably one third of the soil suitable for cultivation.

(3) Its power in temporal matters. Church law and church courts decided cases relating to marriage, divorce, inheritance under wills, contracts made binding by oaths, etc. In addition, the church claimed the right to try all cases which involved clergymen, even accusations of crime against them. All cases which concerned persons under the special protection of the church, such as students, crusaders, widows, and orphans, were also triable in the church courts.

(4) Its power of coercion through excommunication and interdict. Excommunication cut off an offending person from the hope of heaven by excluding him from the fellowship of the church; it also made him practically an outlaw from society. "By virtue

of the divine authority conferred on the bishops by Saint Peter," reads one excommunication, "we cast him out from the bosom of our Holy Mother Church. Let him be accursed in his town,

accursed in his field, accursed in his home. Let no Christian speak to him or eat with him; let no priest say mass for him, nor give him the communion; let him be buried like the ass. And

as these torches cast.

down by our hands are about to be extinguished, so may the light of his life be extinguished, unless he repent and give satisfaction by his devotion." Excommunication applied to persons, the interdict to territories. The chief use of the interdict was to force disobedient rulers to submit to the church through fear of rebelIn time of interdict church doors were closed, the bells silenced, and the people of the district left without the consolations of religion. Marriages could not be celebrated, and even the dead were buried without ceremony in unhallowed ground.

These great powers of the church were exercised exclusively by the clergy, that is, the priests and other officers of the church. They were set. 85. The off sharply from the laity, as the rest of the Christian clergy as community was called. The one class was likened to the an order soul, and the other to the body of a man; and churchmen taught that "the least of the priestly order is worthier than

any king." To the clergy alone were committed the carrying on of the worship of the church, the administration of its sacraments, and the government and discipline of the Christian. community.

The ceremony of "tonsure" marked the entrance of the candidate into the ranks of the clergy. In the Greek Church this meant shaving the hair from the whole head. In the Roman or Latin Church only the top of the head was shaved, leaving a narrow fringe of hair all around, - in memory, it was said, of Christ's crown of thorns. In addition to this distinctive mark (which was periodically renewed), the clergy wore garments of peculiar cut, distinguishing them from the laity and one rank from another. That they might serve God with more singleness of purpose, it was ordered in the Latin Church, from the fourth century on, that priests and the higher clergy should be "celibate," that is, should not marry. In the Greek Church the practice of celibacy was generally confined to the monks. Even in the Latin Church several centuries passed before it became universal. In order that the clergy might be free in performing their religious duties, they secured the privilege of not being tried by the secular law and the secular courts. Thereafter clergymen were only under the church or "canon" law, and could be tried only by ecclesiastical courts. This privilege, which was known as "benefit of clergy," crept sooner or later into the laws of every nation of western Europe. Its evils were seen when persons who had no intention of becoming priests became clerics, or clerks, merely that they might secure protection in their misdeeds.1

In what has been said already concerning the power of the clergy, we have dwelt more upon the externals of their position.

1 There were a number of minor grades among the clergy, below the ranks of priests, deacons, and subdeacons, who alone constituted the "major orders." The author of a twelfth-century textbook defines these minor grades as "doorkeepers, readers, exorcists [casters out of devils], and acolytes." The modern business meaning of the word "clerk" comes from the fact that the clergy were long the only educated class, and hence a cleric (clerk) was employed for all work involving writing and the keeping of accounts.